LGBT individuals have attended the quadrennial Unity confabs
held by minority journalist groups for decades. This year marked the first time
that they helped organize it.

After the National Association of Black Journalists voted in
2011 to end its relationship with Unity over a dispute about finances and
governance, the remaining groups invited the National Lesbian and Gay
Journalists Association to become a member and help plan the 2012 conference,
which took place last week in Las Vegas.

It had been a longtime goal of founding NLGJA member Leroy
"Roy" Aarons, a former editor at the Oakland Tribune
who died in 2004, for the group to join Unity. But
Aaron's entreaties were always rebuffed.

That changed last summer when NLGJA's board voted to unite
with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American
Journalists Association, and the Native American Journalists Association to
present the four-day convention that drew more than 2,000 media professionals
to Sin City.

The inclusion of NLGJA at Unity was largely celebrated
during the event. The majority of attendees were more focused on landing a job
offer or meeting new contacts than on whether the LGBT journalists belonged at
the convention.

NLGJA board member Ken Miguel spoke at one of the
sessions during the Unity conference. (Photo: Matthew Mullins/NLGJA)

"I think it has largely been supportive," said
NLGJA national board secretary Ken Miguel, a segment producer for ABC7 in San
Francisco, when asked to describe NLGJA's reception at Unity. "I think it
has given us a bigger platform to share our collective vision on fairness and
accuracy in coverage."

Sharif Durhams, a member of both NABJ and NLGJA, on whose
national board he serves, has attended the last three consecutive Unity
conventions. He said attendees this year had been "incredibly
welcoming" of the gay journalist group.

"People have been curious about our organization and
the benefits we bring our members," said Durhams, the social media editor
at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"I hope members of NLGJA see the similarities in the discrimination some
of these other minority groups face."

Durhams added that he hoped NLGJA's inclusion in Unity would
result in discussions about race and sexual orientation as it relates to the
news media.

"I also hope our members get asked challenging
questions. There is homophobia in communities of color just as there is racism
in the gay community. I hope we are challenging each other to explore those
issues," said Durhams.

Ongoing debate

The August 1 opening plenary, in fact, zeroed in on those
topics as the discussion about covering race and LGBT issues turned to the ongoing
debate over expanding Unity's membership to include LGBT people and dropping
"Journalists of Color" from its name.

ESPN editor and CNN commentator LZ Granderson, who is gay
and black, ruffled feathers when he suggested homophobia played a role in why
NABJ voted to keep NLGJA out of Unity for years.

In an interview with OutQ News, NABJ board president Gregory
Lee denied charges that his association was motivated by anti-gay bias in not
wanting NLGJA to join Unity.

"I'm sick of everyone jumping on our organization and
saying that we're homophobic. We're not," said Lee, who attended the Unity
confab. "We've been pioneers; we have our own gay and lesbian task force.
It's wrong, and I'm sick of it."

But Lee added that the Unity name change has complicated
talks about having NABJ rejoin the group. And he told OutQ News that one
condition for having the black journalist group return would be to hold a vote
on having the gay journalist group remain a member.

The controversy appeared to play out more in press coverage
of Unity than at the conference itself. Conference attendees paid more
attention to a brouhaha over the Hispanic journalists' board blocking live
coverage of its meeting on Twitter by a student journalist than whether NLGJA
should be present.

And the decision of President Barack Obama and his
presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney to skip the confab also generated
derision, particularly after Romney arrived Friday, August 3 to speak at a
campaign event in North Las Vegas. Obama, who addressed the Unity convention in
2008, also was a no-show this year; his campaign sent Representative Luis
Gutierrez (D-Illinois) on Obama's behalf.

NABJ's absence was also felt.

"I definitely think there is tension in the room with
NABJ not being here," said Miguel. "I think of the groups here,
nobody made me feel unwelcome."

Durhams added that he hopes NABJ will rejoin Unity by 2016
for the next conference.

"It does change the vibe of this event by not having
NABJ a partner," he said.

David Steinberg, who stepped down Sunday as NLGJA's national
board president due to term limits, said seeing the association become an
official member of Unity was one of his biggest accomplishments over the last
four years. Aarons would be "very, very happy it happened," he added.

"The people here, at least in my experience, have been
wonderfully accepting and very happy to see us join, " said Steinberg, a
copy editor at the San Francisco Chronicle.
"A lot of people have come up to me and said they think it is overdue, it
makes sense, and they are so glad we are here."

As for the Unity name change, Steinberg said the request
came from NLGJA in order to reflect the new dynamics of the group and the
makeup of conference attendees. It passed the Unity board 11-4 with one
abstention.

"For some people the term 'journalists of color' has a
very emotional response. Whether true or not, there were some people in NLGJA
who felt the name 'journalists of color' was adopted specifically to keep NLGJA
out," said Steinberg, who met with Lee for 20 minutes during the
conference. "Whether true or not, it is irrelevant. But because people
felt that, you had to address that."

Since he took over as president in 2008, Steinberg has
helped steward NLGJA through a fiscal crisis that almost saw the professional
group shut down. It is now stable and has roughly 600 members.

"There were some ups and downs the last four years. We
are now in good shape," said Steinberg. "We are smaller but more
financially sound than we were. Having NLGJA join Unity was the icing on the
cake."

New leadership

At its meeting July 31 NLGJA's board voted in
Michael Triplett, the assistant managing editor for
Bloomberg BNA Inc., as its new president following the results of an election among
members of the 23-year-old professional association.

"I am honored to have been
elected president of NLGJA," said Triplett. "This is an organization
with an amazing future ahead of it and I look forward to being part of that
future. Thanks to David Steinberg, our outgoing president, who guided us
through some of our most challenging years and put us on our positive
path."

The board also confirmed as its vice
president of print and digital media Sarah Blazucki, the editor of the Philadelphia
Gay News. And Laura Kutch, community
relations manager at ABC7 in San Francisco, was seated as a new member of the
board.

NLGJA announced during the Unity confab that its 2013
national convention and ninth LGBT Media Summit will take place August 22-25 in
Boston.

Full disclosure: Matthew S. Bajko is a member of NLGJA and
stepped down from the national board this month after serving on it as a
representative for the LGBT press the last four years.